The Kansas City Chiefs went from having a nightmare of an offense led by Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill to the defense being more relied upon to lead the way.
This slowly began when Hill was traded in the 2022 offseason and 2023 is when the wide receiver position was in really rough shape in Kansas City.
Even with the lackluster state of the wide receiver position, the Chiefs still won Super Bowl LVIII and Brett Veach went to work in the offseason ensuring that the less-than-stellar performance at the position wouldn’t happen again.
Veach added Xavier Worthy in the draft and Hollywood Brown through free agency to pair with Rashee Rice, who was coming off an impressive rookie season.
It really felt like the Chiefs were going to be stacked at wide receiver, which would help Mahomes and the offense get back to what they once were.
Unfortunately, disaster struck as Brown was injured during the preseason and Rice was injured early in the regular season.
This left Worthy, the first-round rookie, as the main threat and led to Veach eventually trading for DeAndre Hopkins.
When the season was in the books, the Chiefs didn’t have a Super Bowl title but the state of the wide receiver position is the best its been in quite some time.
The team re-signed Brown and got excellent value in Jalen Royals in the fourth round of the draft. They also have Worthy returning and while Rice will likely serve a suspension when he’s healthy enough to return, eventually they’ll have him in the fold too.
This is why it’s not the least bit surprising to see Adam Teicher of ESPN list wide receiver as the Chiefs’ most improved position. This was done in ESPN’s post-draft power rankings where Kansas City came in at number one.
“The Chiefs are counting on the return of two top receivers who missed most of last season with injuries. Rashee Rice led the league with 24 catches through the first three games before a season-ending knee injury, while Hollywood Brown played in only two regular-season games because of a sternoclavicular injury.
Rice and Brown will combine with Xavier Worthy to give the Chiefs a potent group of wideouts. With the selection of fourth-rounder Jalen Royals, Kansas City also added speed and run-after-the-catch ability on the outside.”
This Chiefs upgrade should have every AFC defense on high alert
The Chiefs went on their first run with a high-powered offense and then had to flip the script to winning with defense. The hope is that now, with Brown, Rice, and Worthy all healthy and throwing Royals into the mix as well, that the offense can get back to the fearsome unit it once was.
No one wants to see the Chiefs improving at a position like wide receiver because no one wants to see Mahomes morph back into his MVP form
Hopefully this group he has at his disposal in 2025 will help him get back to that level and the Chiefs can finish the season the right way this time around.
